Blackrock's Doll Concedes Market Is Crashing

Blackrock Vice Chairman Robert Doll, a widely followed market strategist, conceded Thursday that the U.S. stock market is crashing.

Doll made the comment in response to a question from CNBC's Maria Bartiromo on "Closing Bell."

Bartiromo: "...I am reluctant to use the word, but do we call this a crash?"

Managing the Rescue

The government's eager to get the $700 billion rescue plan up and running, and the biggest and best asset managers are bidding for a shot to oversee part of the operation. Blackrock is one of those firms bidding, and Bob Doll joins the CNBC news team to discuss.

Doll: "I guess we have to call it that, Maria. It's a lot of percents in a short period of time, and it's been relentless, as you've pointed out. Not much relief along the way.

"We need to get some traction at some point in time here to get some sort of a rally going to begin repair, and until that happens we've been in this freefall zone and the Fed's going to have to be bigger, bolder and in front of things, I'm afraid."

(See the accompanying video for the full interview, including Doll's thoughts about the Government rescue plan and how it will be managed.)

Doll made the statement just before the 4 p.m. close.

The Dow Thursday lost 678 points, or 7.3 percent, its second biggest one day percent loss since Oct. 19, 1987. The loss brings the Dow's decline to nearly 21 percent tin the last seven trading days, and gives it a 40 percent decline from its record close one year ago to the day.